It has been a graduation season unlike any other. The Trump administration is investigating elite universities and cutting research funding. Pro-Palestinian activism and claims of antisemitism are shaping campus life. International students are worried about having their visas revoked.
In contrast with past generations, what a speaker says on a commencement stage now reaches an audience far larger than the crowd that day. Universities routinely post footage of ceremonies online, giving faraway relatives of graduates a chance to tune in and handing keynote speakers a global stage.
The New York Times studied videos of dozens of keynote commencement addresses that were posted online — more than 170,000 words delivered this spring at a cross section of America’s higher education institutions — in order to analyze the most pressing topics. Many speakers, including Kermit the Frog at the University of Maryland, the gymnast Simone Biles at Washington University in St. Louis and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at Dakota State University, avoided the political fray and focused on timeless lessons.
But plenty of others, including journalists, scientists and politicians from both parties, weighed in directly on the news of the moment. Many of them described 2025 in existential terms, warning about dire threats to free speech and democracy. Others heralded the dawn of a promising new American era. Here is a look at key themes that emerged in those speeches.
A Moment of Opportunity
Several speakers struck an upbeat tone about the world students were entering.
The actor Gary Sinise told Vanderbilt University students that “our freedom certainly allows us the opportunity” to achieve great things. At Furman University, Kristin Huguet Quayle, an Apple executive, said “the barriers to creation are as low as they’ve ever been” and there “are more possibilities before you than ever before.”
President Trump spoke at two ceremonies, telling graduates that it was a unique and exciting moment to be a young American. “I think you have a chance to be the greatest generation in the history of our country,” the president told University of Alabama graduates. Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, a Republican, spoke at Liberty University about the possibilities awaiting those who say “Send me.”
Attacks on Truth
Speakers from the media world described a country where objective truths were increasingly doubted and open discourse was threatened.
Al Roker, the NBC News broadcaster, told Siena College students that “truth is under attack.” Scott Pelley of CBS News said at Wake Forest University that “journalism is under attack.” And Jonathan Karl of ABC News said at Washington College that if someone suggests there is no real truth, “that’s a lie.”
At Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Nancy Gibbs, a longtime magazine reporter and editor, lamented the decline of newspapers and the rise of conspiracy theories, telling students that “I think of you as a wartime generation.”
Division, All Around
Speakers from inside and outside the political arena called out the dangers of polarization.
Grant Hill, a retired N.B.A. player, urged Duke University students to show respect amid disagreement and not to fear dissenting voices. Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son died after being taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, said at Yeshiva University that “the salty, tasty extreme is comforting, it’s fun, and sometimes it even feels righteous,” but that staying in the center “is what keeps us all agile and questioning, seeking and thinking.”
Phil Scott, the Republican governor of Vermont, said at Norwich University that divides were “doing real harm to our nation, our state, our communities.” Doug Collins, the secretary of veterans affairs, said the country was “not curious enough” in his speech at Piedmont University. And at New College of Florida, Alan M. Dershowitz, a legal scholar who represented Mr. Trump in his first impeachment trial, criticized what he saw as the excesses of the left in higher education. But he also urged conservatives not to “try to turn a university into a platform for conservatism, a platform for right-wing ideology.”
Civil Rights Revisited
Some of the most pointed and urgent speeches were delivered at historically Black colleges and universities.
Many speakers harked back to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, warning graduates that gains that once seemed permanent were now threatened.
“Jim Crow never died,” Representative Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat, said at Tougaloo College. Mayor Leonardo Williams of Durham, N.C., also a Democrat, warned Shaw University graduates against political apathy, saying “there’s a whole system trying to dismantle the very rights that our ancestors bled for.”
At Spelman College, the actor Taraji P. Henson said “our Blackness is depicted as a threat.” LeVar Burton, of “Reading Rainbow” fame, told Howard University graduates that he loved the United States, but that “America is still addicted to its racism.” And at Alabama State University, Representative Shomari Figures, a Democrat, told students not to “feel discouraged by the attacks that we’re seeing.”
America’s Shifting Role
Global uncertainty, military threats and America’s changing place in the world were persistent themes.
Vice President JD Vance told U.S. Naval Academy graduates that “the era of uncontested U.S. dominance is over,” and Adm. Christopher W. Grady, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Notre Dame graduates that they were entering a world where “rival powers contest one another from the seabed to space.”
Melonie D. Parker, a Google executive, spoke to Stillman College graduates about a “rapidly evolving job market” and “the transformative rise of artificial intelligence.” Jacinda Ardern, the former prime minister of New Zealand, urged students at Yale’s Class Day to remember that “we are connected” beyond national borders.
Dahlia Kozlowsky and Anna Venarchik contributed reporting.
Mitch Smith is a Chicago-based national correspondent for The Times, covering the Midwest and Great Plains.
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